One word. Doom. It's a simple name that can invoke a lot of things. Deathmatch, modding, programming. Doom is and was a lot of things to a lot of people. It's also known for being ported to everything. Why is this the case? Why Doom and not its older brother Wolfenstein 3D? I have compiled a list of six reasons why I think that's the case, based on my own knowledge of Doom and programming in general.

It's open source

This one is probably the most obvious, but it's worth mentioning. In 1997, the source code to Doom was released. Originally intended to be accompanied by a book, it was eventually released standalone. Why is this important? It means that people can work with the original code without reverse engineering it. Reverse engineering the Doom executable actually got pretty far in the early days of Doom modding. However, after the source was released,

I'm getting really tired of Nintendo, for one big reason: I can't buy any of their products.

I'm sure you remember the buzz around the launch of the Wii. The Wii was huge, everyone was talking about it, and it was a giant success for Nintendo. At the the time, I really wanted one, but I wasn't able to get one until a couple years after launch. "Not a big deal", I thought, "it was a huge seller, so it makes sense that stores couldn't keep it in stock." Now, I'm not sure if this was actually the case, or it was intentional under stocking by Nintendo, but Nintendo seems to have taken this idea and run with it in later years.

Considering Billy recently posted that Rayman 2 review, this is perfect timing! The creator of Rayman, Michel Ancel, recently unearthed an EPROM cartridge of a long lost, canceled Rayman game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. He posted images of the unreleased game to his Instagram account. According to Ancel, "We thought it was lost, but somewhere in the cold electronic circuit, something was alive."

The original Rayman launched in 1995 for the Atari Jaguar, Sony PlayStation, and Sega Saturn. Before that, however, the game was planned for an SNES release, but that particular version was canceled due to the rise in CD-ROM technology in the newer consoles of the time. As a result of that, this unreleased SNES version of Rayman is fairly different from the final product on the Jaguar, PS1, and Saturn. For example, the SNES version was going to have a co-op mode.

Some games fall into a category I call “mystical”. These games inspire the imagination and there seems to be more to the world than what you can see at face value. One of exemplary game series are that of the character Rayman. Just look at Rayman himself, he has no arms or legs, so his body parts just float! When I first played the demo for the Dreamcast version of Rayman 2 at nine years old, I knew it was something special. Though strangely, I didn’t really play Rayman 2 until this year. Perhaps it’s because when I rented Rayman 1 many years ago, I was put off by the crushing difficulty. Thankfully that’s not the case with the second one.

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood is a side-scrolling platform video game published and developed by Konami for the PC Engine CD. It was released exclusively in Japan on October 29, 1993. The critically acclaimed Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is a direct sequel to this game. Outside Japan, the PC Engine and its CD add-on were known as the TurboGrafx-16 and the TurboGrafx-CD. While the system and its add-on did moderately well in Japan, they did poorly everywhere else, and so many of its greatest games never got released in North America and Europe. This is one of those games. Some would argue that the reason the TG16 and TGCD didn't succeed overseas is due to the lack of good games being localized, but that's neither here nor there. Through the art of imports and eventually the modern magic of emulation, people outside Japan finally got to experience the game. Shortly thereafter, Rondo of Blood quickly garnered the reputation of being one of the best Castlevania games of all time. Th

Doom is one of the most iconic games ever made, the forerunner of all FPS. Equally iconic, is its soundtrack. A mix of thrash metal and suspenseful tones, the soundtrack really set the mood for the game. Probably the most iconic of those songs (we're all three levels of iconic now), the song to the very first level: E1M1. Standing for Episode 1 Map 1, this was every Doom player's first taste of the action. The track itself is actually called "At Doom's Gate", which is a fitting name since the first level is really the entryway into the game. (The first level of Doom 2 is called Entryway, as it turns out). The song itself is very evocative of the map it represents; it's a very quick and action packed song. Keys and environmental tricks like lifts (barring secrets) aren't introduced until the second level. For E1M1 it's just run 'n' shoot. To celebrate this track, we've compiled a list of covers of this song, everything from comedy, to intriguing, to full on headbanging enjoyment. Catch 'em after the break.

Have you heard of Interplay? They're the company that published titles such as Earthworm Jim, Boogerman, MDK, and Descent. Obviously they have fallen on hard times, since they announced that they're going to be selling off all of their intellectual properties. Turns out this is an all or nothing deal, so people can't just buy Earthworm Jim for example. No price has been listed, people interested have been instructed to contact Wedbush's Joe Morgan (joe.morgan@wedbush.com). Do you or someone you know have possibly thousands of dollars laying around? Well this is your chance!

But seriously, I'm hoping these IPs go to a worthy developer, and not languish like many IPs have in the past, like System Shock. I'd especially love to see another MDK come out.

Super Mario World, subtitled Super Mario Bros. 4 in Japan, was the launch title for Nintendo's 16-bit console, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and as such, was serious business. It came packaged with every SNES bought at the time, so just about every SNES owner got to experience the grandiose world of Mario, in all its 16-bit wonder. This game is the sequel to the most excellent and amazing Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES. That's a lot to live up to, you know. Some say Super Mario World has successfully surpassed its predecessor, while others insist the NES classic reigns supreme. The debate for which game is the absolute best in the 2-D Mario series will go on for eons without resolution, I'm afraid. I'm not here to talk about Super Mario Bros. 3, though. I'm here to discuss Super Mario World, and how it also became an instant classic for the ages, forever to be remembered by scholars all over the world. This is history, folks. I can only hope that you were a part of it, i